Happy New Year

I'm going to follow suite with Girl's Gone Child and do a recap of the year.

In 2008...

I started off the year being pregnant.
Gave birth to my beautiful son 6 wks early.
Made it through the 2 longest weeks of my life while he was in the NICU.
Learned that my life will never be the same.
And am thankful for that.
Survived on less than 3 hours of sleep a night for over 2 month.
Became a blogger.
Cried every night for over a week.
Yearned for a job change.
And now have a new career.
Had my 29th birthday, stressed over the next one.
Lost respect of my 2 best friends.
Came to terms that I may never lose the baby weight.
Decided marriage counseling is a necessary and good thing.


What a year, right?!

In 2009...

Tell Grady that I love him every day.
Will pay off at least 1 credit card.
Lose at least 15 pounds.
I'm hopeful that I'll strive in my new job.
Learn more about my husband.
Find a great circle of friends to surround myself with.
Spend more time with my mother.
And maybe just be happy with myself...as I am.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE RIPLEYS!

"Rear" did Christmas go?

**Look at the last picture to get the heading!


Man, Christmas came and went so quickly! I can't believe it's over :( But we had an amazing time!
We opened presents with my parents on Christmas eve, spent Thurs & Fri just us, and Saturday Jason's parents came in from Comanche.
Grady has more toys than he knows what to do with!!

Here's some amazing photos I took Christmas morning!

Merry Christmas!

Super Exciting Weekend!

It's official...
I'm finally working in IT! My new title is Help Desk Analysis...sounds important doesn't it!?
I got my Blackjack II and laptop of Friday, moved all my stuff over to the IT department. I'll be the only girl on the Infrastructure Team. I'll make sure to put all my frou frou stuff out. Potpourri, scented candles, pictures of flowers and whatnot! :P

It's Christmas party time!!! Jason and I went to my company X-mas party last night. I can't believe they scheduled the party on a Friday at 7, knowing everyone gets off at 5?? It was ok, not as fun as last year. We all went out for drinks before and after the party. It's just not the same now that I'm a momma! My ass was exhausted by 10pm. LAME!!

Tonight is the Focke's 3rd annual X-mas party. Our friends Scott and Jenn have a Xmas party out in Lewisville every year. So we're taking Grady to his 1st party!! Hope he doesn't drink too much eggnog. (Yes I know not to feed a 10 month old eggnog!) We probably won't stay too long but it will be nice to get out and see everyone :)


As for Christmas...I've already purchased all Grady's gifts but I came across these two chairs that I can't stop thinking about :)
I know he doesn't really need one, but I just got to have it. Which do you think is cuter? The Mickey chair or the Pottery Barn with Grady's name?




Santa...please bring Grady a cute lil' chair so he can watch his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in comfort.
Thank you...I'll make sure we put out chocolate chip cookies and a big glass of milk for ya. :)

Ridin' in my coup

Here's a few pictures of Grady from this weekend. We're having fun playing inside!

Tis' the Season...

...to be thankful for every moment!

(The hat stayed on for .25 seconds!)

Happy Thanksgiving from The Ripleys!

Things are going great at the Ripley residence!! We plan on staying in town this weekend and just hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa Harmen, Aunt Lissa, JR and Ross.
I've already planned Grady's Thanksgiving meals.

First up - yummy Banana Peach Granola for breakfast


Sweet Potatoes for lunch


And for dinner - Vegetable Turkey


Now doesn't that just make your mouth water?!?!


I can't believe Christas is right around the corner!!!!
If you can't tell I'm stupid excited about Grady's 1st Christmas. I have all his presents already bought, now I just need to fill a 3 x 5 foot stocking sack full of goodies!





Oh, for some of you mommies out there, I found this great site ScrapBlog that I'm in love with. I love scrapbooking but can't afford to keep up with it. Now I don't have to spend $50 on stickers!




Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

The good, the bad and the surgery...

A few weeks ago we went in for Grady's follow up appointment and found out his hypospadias surgery was unsuccessful. Well let me rephrase that, the only successful part was the circumcision.
So we now have a new doctor who will perform the surgery all over again. :(

THE BAD

Dr. Strand (our new urologist) said there are several fistulas or "leaks" that he'll need to repair. We originally thought there was only 1.

He'll also need to reconstruct his urethra. It's in the right spot now, but is extremely too narrow to have a "full stream".

THE GOOD
The doctor informed us that thankfully there's enough reusable skin left to patch up the leaks (love my technical lingo) so he won't need to do a skin graph from the inside of his cheek!

THE SURGERY
Is scheduled for Jan 13th at Medical City of Dallas. I'm hoping we'll get him all fixed before his first birthday and no one will ever be able to tell he had surgery!

Beary cute!!

Learning you day by day...

Learning that every morning the first thing you do is mumble yourself awake. Then you stretch so big I swear you grow an inch. Followed by looking at daddy and I with the sweetest smile ever seen.

Learning that your new nickname should be root hog. You love to root under things...whether it be under my arm or under daddy's pillow in the middle of the night.

Learning that your eyes change from a cobalt blue to almost a taupe gray. I have yet to figure out what brings on the change. I'm assuming the color of your clothes.

Learning that no matter how upset or cranky you are that putting on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse will bring a huge grin to your face "almost" every time.

Learning that you have your daddy's sleeping pattern...never naps and gets up at the crack of dawn every morning.

Learning that you love the ladies. You'll ham it up for the girls but will start to cry if a man comes up to you.

Learning that you like to rough-house with Ross and can sometimes be a lil' bully. ;)

Learning that you're the most amazing and beautiful being to "walk" this earth. And that we can't wait to learn more and more with each passing day!

~Fall is here~

Courtesy of Miss Zoot

Halloween weekend re-cap

Ross and Grady are ready to Trick-or-Treat!!



Grady's first trip to Comanche to see Nana and Pops. (Jason's parents)



Grady did exceptionally well on the way there. Snoozed part of the time, played with mommy, stopped off at a gas station to change Grady's diaper. It wasn't 2 mintues back on the highway that he decided he wasn't done...stop off #2 literally!



8pm...wouldn't fall asleep. Cried endlessly...not even the Great Mickey Mouse could save us. So we decided to pack it all up and head back home.

Got stopped by a State Trooper...thankfully only gave us a warning. Listened to Grady cry most of the way. Finally passed out 2 hours into the trip.

Arrived home at 12:30am with the time change!! Thank god for day-light savings!!

Grateful

I'll post Grady's 1st Halloween pictures tomorrow. I left my camera in Comanche...along with my purse and cell phone! (It's amazing how the absence of these objects can throw you off balance.)

Anyways, my friend Angela got me hooked on this amazing blog.
"Matt, Liz and Madeline" http://www.mattlogelin.com/

The story is heart-wrenching. I sat at work yesterday with tears streaming down my face reading his story. It makes me realize how grateful I am to have Grady, Jason and my family in my life. All the "other stuff" I've been worrying about doesn't mean a thing.

If you get some time please check it out and let me know what you think.
(Click on "If you haven't been here before," to understand how he got to where he is today.)

Good holiday fun!

Melissa and I took the boys out for some fun yesterday! Our first stop was to a pumpkin patch at Creekwood Methodist Church and then to a Carnival in Plano. We all had a great time together! :)













Our "attempt" at a group picture! HA!!

Now on to the carnival...
I wish I'd taken pictures of a game we saw there. The object was to throw a baseball at a stack of empty beer bottles in the hopes of smashing them. Nice family fun, right?!

Anyhoo...Grady rode on his 1st carousel and Ross caught 7 fish to win us each a prize! Our poor babies were so tuckered out afterwards. It's tough having fun!!

Oh dada!

Gradybug said "Dada" last night clear as day! Music to a parents ears :)

Our lil' man is growing up so fast. I can't believe he'll be 9 months next week. Time sure does fly by when you're having fun!

Pumpkin Patch with my pu-kins

We had an amazing time Saturday at our very first pumpkin patch! Grady was in awe, he could've stayed there for hours looking at all the pumpkins. I think we found us a new Ripley Family tradition :) Enjoy!

Sad, upset and angry...

These are a few emotions that hit me yesterday after Grady's 6 week checkup with his Pediatric Urologist. We found out that his hypospadia surgery was not a complete success and that he'll need another surgery to fix a fistula that has recently appeared. :(

A fistula is an abnormal, usually ulcerous channel like formation between two internal organs or between an internal organ and the skin. It may follow a surgical procedure with improper healing, or it may be caused by injury, abscess, or infection with penetration deep enough to reach another organ or the skin. When open at only one end it is called an incomplete fistula or sinus. The most common sites of fistula are the rectum and the urinary organs, but almost any part of the body may be affected.

In other words, he did not heal properly and now has 2 urinary streams.

It breaks my heart that my baby has to go through another surgery. But Jason is trying to keep me positive. He keeps reminding me that we are very lucky that this is the only problem Grady's had after being 6 weeks premature. And he is completely right, but that doesn't take the hurt away.

The doctor said we'll need to wait 6 months for his body to completely heal from this surgery before we can do another. So now we're just waiting.

Sticky situation

I wanted to share some pictures of Gradybug's 1st attempt at feeding himself. He had so much fun!! A few spoonful of mixed berries ended up in his nose, ears and under his 3rd chin but "most" of it made it to his mouth!!



It started off nice and innocent...



...a spoonful here, a spoonful there...



...then it snowballed...



...into a Mixed Berry Monstrosity!!



NICE!!





Like Christopher Columbus, Grady has discovered a new world. Well, a new world to him anyway. He's taking his first steps with the help of his toy and uncovered the mystery that was once the stairs.





Isn't he the cutest?!